The Bible and the Budget

We seem to be waking up in the morning recently to news about inflation, exchange rates, falling taxes and rising prices. 

Perhaps most of us are better at seeing the big picture here than the fine details – especially when it comes to the economy. We know it's important, and we're worried – what happens if the Chancellor's great experiment doesn't work? Many of us are struggling as it is, with rising energy and fuel costs hitting us really hard. 

Well: people with a deep knowledge of these issues can disagree about what to do, and most of us should probably check our humility before offering an opinion. But one of the issues the Chancellor's recent announcements has thrown up is about fairness. Is it right that rich people should do better out of tax cuts than those who earn less? 

The Bible isn't really very directive when it comes to the details of policy. It reflects a world where there were rich people and poor people. If you were rich, your riches came with responsibilities – and consequences if you didn't live up to them, as in the Parable of the Rich Fool (Luke 12.13-21). Ancient Israelite law was designed to build a society in which everyone had enough and nobody starved (see the law on gleaning after the harvest in Leviticus 19.9-10) – but it concentrated on character, not on politics. 

This focus on character throws up a very interesting perception: namely, that both poverty and wealth have their dangers. In the book of Proverbs, Agur asks God to ‘give me only as much food as I need. If I have more, I might say that I do not need you. But if I am poor, I might steal and bring disgrace on my God’ (30.7-9). 

There's much wisdom in this – and a warning about what happens when societies become polarised, with deep divisions between the rich who can ride out the economic storms without worrying too much, and the poor who are reduced to the margins of society because they can't afford to live decent lives. The rich become arrogant; the poor become desperate. 

The Bible doesn't have much to say about policy, but it has a lot to say about people. The numbers and graphs in all these news stories are about the lives we actually live, and they have consequences for all of us. Our government needs our prayers at the moment, whether they know it or not. May God grant them wisdom.